Local high schools are experiencing a phenomenon known as Street
Law, where issues such as drug testing and homicide are being
discussed in depth, leading high school students to take an
increased interest in their education.
An unusual class in Street Law helps UCLA law students learn how
to explain legal intricacies in simple terms by teaching high
school students how the law affects them.
Simultaneously, Street Law allows law students to strengthen
qualities and skills necessary for practicing law by teaching high
school classes where students know very little about the law.
Legal concepts are hard to communicate ““ said Paul
Bergman, who taught the class last year ““ because they
don’t have a visual component and so many people don’t
see how the law relates to them and their world.
The UCLA School of Law class titled Street Law offers students
the unique opportunity to enrich the education of local high school
students.
Co-taught by Bergman and Tony Tolbert, the class sends law
students out to local high schools and youth prisons, asking them
to teach law-related materials.
Nira Geevargis, a third-year law student who took the class last
spring, said it was a novel experience since it involved community
outreach. It reminded her that law could be innovative and fun.
By creating their own lesson plans and teaching 30 rambunctious
teenagers, law students get a chance to step outside their normal
law school curriculum.
During one class Geevargis taught, she concocted a plan with the
high school teacher in which the teacher began the class by asking
all the students involved in extracurricular activities to leave
for drug testing. Shocked and angered by the request, the students
were even more stunned when they learned the teacher was not
serious, and that they had been fooled.
Geevargis used the situation as a forum for discussing a federal
law behind randomly drug testing minors.
“It was something new for them because they had never been
tricked by a teacher. … They also didn’t know the law
affected them so much,” Geevargis said.
Some say the SATs and other standardized tests guide the
curriculums of high school classes. Street Law defies that idea by
allowing students to gain a better understanding of the law as it
relates to them in the real world, and not on a piece of paper.
Students respond well to the presentations, said Santa Monica
High School teacher Don Hedrick, who teaches U.S. government
classes and participates in the program.
Students seem to react well because they can easily relate to
the young law students teaching in front of them, said Hedrick.
“Some high school students have commented that the class
changed their view of education, and that it lit a spark,”
Tolbert said.
A popular lesson plan among the law students, said Bergman, is
the peanut butter and jelly sandwich contract.
The goal of the lesson, Bergman said, is to get students to
understand the ambiguities of contracts.
The lesson involves dividing high school students into groups
and asking them to create a contract specifying the terms and ways
in which a peanut butter and jelly sandwich should be made.
The teacher proceeds to make the sandwich according to the
contract, while simultaneously looking for loopholes. Students can
end up with a peanut butter, jalapeño and jelly sandwich if
they fail to stipulate they do not want jalapeños.
Geevargis taught at Camp David Gonzalez, a juvenile probation
camp, where she said she saw an increase in the students’
confidence.
At the end of the session Geevargis gave out diplomas, some of
which were signed by the dean of the UCLA law school. Very few of
the students ever get recognized for their academic achievements,
Geevargis said, adding that it was an experience every student
deserves.
“Growing up, I assumed you needed to be really rich to be
a lawyer. My mom sold creams at Macy’s and I never thought
that I would be a lawyer,” Geevargis said. “I tried to
put my students in positions of power in the legal world, and I
tried to offer them something new.”
Good communication and analytical and verbal skills are
important for both the classroom and the courtroom. In addition,
knowing how to manage a crowd and explain legal issues on an
elementary level are beneficial skills to have.
“Once you know how to control 30 sassy teenagers, you feel
like you can do anything,” Geevargis said.